Patreon!

Hello dear friends and family! I want to extend a huge thanks to all of you who keep coming back to my blog, and for your support and encouragement. I know I haven't been posting much over the past year or two. Sometimes life gets a bit overwhelming, or other things take priority. But I really do love writing! I enjoy writing the poetry and snippets of life that I share on this blog. I also enjoy writing fiction and stageplays and music. Because I enjoy writing (and directing and visual art) I have been trying to find a way to dedicate more time to it.

This is why I have decided to join Patreon! For those who are not familiar with Patreon, it is a website where people can financially support artists in exchange for special rewards. On my Patreon page I will be sharing updates about what projects I'm working on, as well as special content like poems, short stories, and digital copies of some of my artwork.

I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to support me on Patreon! You can find my page here: https://www.patreon.com/leanewinger

Why support me on Patron?

- If you like my writing and wish I could post content more often, this would be a great way to help that happen! As my support increases, I will be able to dedicate more time to writing. I will still be posting here on my blog as I always have, but I will be posting additional content to my Patreon group, so you might want to check it out!

- If you want to be part of a special community that hears about the behind-the-scenes of my writing, like what kinds of projects I am dreaming up next, or to be able to join special Q and A times, or even vote on what I should name a new character!

- If you want to partner with me in my writing and artistic endeavours. If you like what I'm doing and want to support me and cheer me on, I'd love for you to join my team! One day I would love to be able to work part time as a writer, and it is your support that will start to make that dream come true!

Whether you would consider supporting me or not, check out my Patreon page! I'd love to hear what you think of it!

https://www.patreon.com/leanewinger

30, Like Me

Dusty feet
Tramping eagerly along
Ancient roads
To the river where his
Cousin waits
When it was time to begin
He was 30
Like me.

Long days
Reaching out to hurting
Broken lives
So rarely having just one
Quiet moment
When he healed and taught them
He was 30
Like me.

Reach out your hand
Pharisees start grumbling
Name calling
Try to trap him, stop him
Brood of vipers
When he defied the system
He was 30
Like me.

Burning bright
Just a few short years till he would
Pay the price
Giving everything he had
For our life
When he started on that road
He was 30
Like me.

Eternal
God himself incarnate
Beyond me
But somehow he was like me
He knew
This many days on this old planet
He was 30
Like me.

Mommy Moments: Deep Thinker

3-Year-Old: *is running to go to the bathroom*

3-Year-Old: *walks straight into the bathroom door, hurts his face*

3-Year-Old: *goes to Mommy for a kiss*

*Two minutes later*

3-Year-Old: Mommy, why did the Bible story say that Jesus walked through the wall?

The Girl From Moab: Finished!!

I have largely been absent from this blog lately. Between moving and other life things I haven’t had as much time for my personal projects as I would have liked, but one project that I have continued to plug away at is my musical. Now I am so excited to be able to say that it is finished!

Well, finished is a loose term. I’m sure I will keep finding bits and pieces to edit further. I haven’t even started tackle any orchestrations. But the songs are all written and formatted, and the script is at a point where I am happy with it, so I am saying that it is done!

65 pages of script
133 pages of music
Over three years
I don’t even know how many hundreds of hours of work
And The Girl From Moab 2.0 is ready to go!

What’s next? Dreaming and scheming about how and when to get it on the stage!

I’m sure I’ll post about it every now and then here on my blog, but if you are interested in following along more closely as things move forward, feel free to follow The Girl From Moab on your social media platform of choice - or on all of them!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGirlFromMoab/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegirlfrommoab/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegirlfrommoab
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0nFljyXKPjcZdJk8jttYug

Goodbye Abbotsford

Goodbye Abbotsford,

Your sprawling suburbs and dirty streets

where business is the name of the game

and the poor and homeless are the losers. 

Goodbye Abbotsford,

A church on every street corner

yet violence and gangs increase

and it’s dangerous to walk at night. 

Goodbye Abbotsford,

I will not miss

your fake smiles and insubstantiated promises 

that “we will hang out someday”.

You liked that I was of use to you

then turned your shoulder 

during the darkest days of my life.

I was invisible. 

Goodbye Abbotsford,

There was a tiny patch of garden 

I loved 

A friend

or two

whose smiles were real. 

I’ll miss them. 

I pray to God

This is goodbye to those who hurt me

Goodbye 

to dysfunctional ways of thinking

and living

Goodbye 

to being a hollow shell

in the busy, apathetic chaos. 

Goodbye Abbotsford,

I am so very ready to go. 

I’m done. 

It is time

For a new chapter. 

But for some reason

I’m still crying.  

Mommy Moments: Suspicious

Preschooler: *squatting on the floor*

Me: *walks into room*

Preschooler: I’M JUST BENDING DOWN SO I CAN SEE MY TOYS BETTER.

Me: ...

Mommy Moments: Misquote

Then the children came unto their mother, saying, “Why do we not watch Paw Patrol, when verily we did so in past days?” And their mother said unto them, “Can the children watch Paw Patrol as long as their grandmother is with them? But the days will come when their grandmother shall be taken from them, and then they shall watch Paw Patrol.”

Mommy Moments: Goodbye?

Daddy (driving away to work): See you later, alligator!

4-Year-Old: In a while, crocodile!

2-Year-Old: See you in a crocodile!

Me: ...

Mommy Moments: Song Selection

Me: *playing Jesus paid it all on the piano*

4 Year Old: What are you doing, mommy?

Me: Deciding what songs we should sing at church on Sunday.

–One week later–

Me: *playing The lion sleeps tonight on the piano*

4 Year Old: We should sing that song at church, mommy!!

Me: ...

A Few Pictures

Forest river

Exploring a cave

Time with Grandpa

River trail

Sunshine

Painting and musical editing

Visiting Uncle Steve

Looking at starfish

Toes in the sand

The castle crew begins

Little helper

Running free

Windy day

Driftwood

The sandcastle

Adventures with friends

Exploring

Smiles

A friendly visitor

Friends

If we treated every moment as if it was worth capturing in a picture, maybe we would appreciate every moment a little more...

Moment

Hold the moment precious in your hand,
then drop it like a grain of sand
into the vast ocean of time.

Inside My Mind

Inside my mind it's raining.
Storm winds mocking sight
That says the sun is shining.
Chaos reaches out
To stain the flowers,
Blot the colours from the sky.
An all-consuming blight,
Constrained by Handel's symmetry
And rhythmic footsteps on the road.
I hold the darkness tight inside,
Afraid to poison all
That's left of good.

Mommy Moments: Brothers

Older brother: I'm the fastest!

Younger brother: I'm the fastest!

Older brother: I'm the slowest!

Younger brother: I'm the slowest!

Older brother: No, I'm the slowest!

Younger brother: I'm the fastest!

Older brother: We can both be the fastest!

Younger brother: Yeah!

Mommy Moments: In All Weather

When your kids are more hardcore than you are:

"I'm so glad the weather doesn't dampen your enthusiasm, but do we really have to go biking in a sleet storm?"

It actually ended up being a lot more fun than I expected!

And we went home for hot chocolate afterward :)

Another Day, Another Year

Hey Everyone!

It's been a few months since I've shared how I'm doing, so I figured it's about time! Overall, I am doing significantly better than I was back in October. Through both prayer and the passage of time, I have seen healing and growth. Physically, much of my strength has returned. I am able to get through my day without having to lie down, and I can take the boys to the park. I haven't tried hiking yet, but I am able to walk 5 kilometres, which is encouraging.

Although my physical health is improving, my emotional health is taking longer to recover. I am easily overstimulated and overwhelmed. I struggle to cope when I'm around large crowds, or conflict, or people who are expressing strong emotions. Although I have enough energy now to go out and do things, I often end up spending my time alone or just with my family. During this time, my projects have become a source of comfort and safety for me. Whenever I have free time, you can usually find me at the piano or on my laptop.

A side effect of this focus is that I have managed to finish all of the songs for my musical, as well as my latest edit of the script! The script has been sent off to a few more people for feedback, and I am starting on my newest project: a novel about mountaineers, a mysterious door beneath a glacier, and a daring rescue mission!

A lot of people have been asking me if I ever got a diagnosis. No, I didn't. As I saw my health slowly improving, I got tired of blood tests and doctor's appointments, and gave up pursuing an answer. But looking back on the circumstances surrounding my "crash", I am pretty sure that what I experienced was a burnout. It has been a long six months since then, and it will be longer yet until I am back to "normal", but I am thankful for a loving, understanding husband who has been helping me through it, and my supportive friends and family who have been praying for me and that I can reach out to when I need help.

Hopefully I'll start writing on my blog a bit more now. I've missed sharing my life with you.